


Give Up

by QuantumFeat72



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Drabble, Non-Binary Chara, Non-Binary Frisk, One Shot, Other, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-30
Updated: 2017-03-30
Packaged: 2018-10-13 01:08:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10503279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuantumFeat72/pseuds/QuantumFeat72
Summary: There is someone you have to find.(A fanfiction equivalent of vent art.)





	

You feel golden flowers under your bare feet.  You walk across them as gently as you can and keep going.  You listen for the voices of the monsters as you walk through New Home, but hear nothing.  A bell tolls when you reach the golden hallway and you turn, startled, but only silence follows.

There is someone you need to find.

You walk to Hotland and find it, too, eerily empty.  You can’t hear the core running from across the Lava sea.  The door to Alphys’ lab is locked.  You keep going.

The riverperson is missing, and no bird appears to carry you across the gap.  You test the water and swim across, shivering from the cold.  You reach Snowdin and knock on every door.  Grillby’s is closed and the library is empty.  You keep going.

The door to the ruins slams shut behind you and you turn again, searching frantically for the cause of the sound.  Quiet settles in behind it and you break into a run.  

_There is someone you have to find._

You remind yourself sternly of this fact, although your memory fails you when you ask it who you’re looking for.  You see golden flowers and walk toward them.  Sunlight filters in from the hole above you.

“Greetings.”

You turn around to see the source of the voice.  A child smiles back at you from the edge of the room.  It takes you a long moment to remember their name.  “Chara?” you hear yourself ask, your voice unusually quiet in the silence of the air around you.

They walk toward you, smile neither growing nor fading.  They don’t answer you, and they don’t need to.

“Chara, what’s going on?” you ask, “What are you doing here?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”  They stop walking, just a couple feet short of where you stand, and you notice for the first time that their right hand isn’t empty.  “You see,” they continue as you stumble backward, “I’ve grown tired of this charade.”

“What do you mean?” you ask, eyes still fixated on the knife.  “What charade?”

They hold the knife near their chest, stroking the blade with their free hand.  “It’s time to put an end to this.”  They close the gap between you and hold out the knife, handle facing you.

You look back and forth between Chara and the knife for a moment, confused.

“Take it,” they insist.  “It’s yours.  Consider it a parting gift.”

Slowly, you lift your hand and accept the knife.  Chara has barely even let go of it when another appears in their hand.

You dodge just in time, ducking to the side before they have a chance to turn around.  Their posture straightens as they turn to smile at you over their shoulder.  You get ready to dodge again, but they appear to be waiting for you to make the next move.

* * *

“ _It’s your turn,” they told you during that first encounter.  “Do something.”  You hid behind your stick and stumbled away from the Froggit.  “Oh come on,” they said.  “You heard her - if you’re not going to FIGHT, stall for time.”  You nodded and opened your mouth to speak._

* * *

“Why are you doing this?”

“Well that’s a boring question,” they say, walking toward you and twirling their knife absently in their hand.  “I don’t know.  Does it matter?”

“What do you mean you-”

You dodge left, cutting yourself off, stumble backwards and duck again when Chara attacks.  You right yourself on shaking legs, inching away from them as they wait for your move.

“What do you want?”

Chara shrugs.  “I’d be satisfied to watch you die.”

You jump backward, dodge left, a knife catches your arm on the right and slices through the cloth and skin.  “Why?” you ask.  “What did I ever do to you?”

“Nothing,” replies Chara, “yet.”

Another flurry of attacks.  You smell blood.  You remember your knife.

You swallow the temptation to attack and speak again.  “But you think I’m going to?”

You aren’t sure if it’s a question or a statement, but Chara answers you either way.

“I know you will.”

You jump backward preemptively and find a knife in the back of your shoulder.  You cry out, reaching to cover the wound with your hand.

“You’re human,” Chara continues as they walk steadily toward you.  You stumble backward and trip on something.  Your back hits the wall.  “No matter how hard you try not to, you will continue to be human.”  They grab the front of your shirt and hold you against the wall.  Your knife taps against the stone in your limp hand.

“There is no way out of this,” says Chara.

“You’ve told me that before,” you reply, coughing.  Each breath reminds you of the pain.  Chara blurs out of focus.

Tap, says the knife against the wall.

“I am going to kill you,” says Chara, tone dispassionate, as though they were reminding you of a plan to go to the grocery store.

Tap, insists the knife.

“Do it then,” you spit, glaring back up at them.

* * *

_“Let me die,” you had said, when Asgore killed you for the eighth time.  “Please, Chara.”_

_“No,” they intoned, “I won’t.  You aren’t done here.”_

* * *

“If that’s what you want,” you say now, “do it.”

Tap.

Chara stabs you in the stomach and you tense and grimace.  Each breath you take hurts more than the last.

Tap. Tap.

“It isn’t like you to give up this quickly,” mutters Chara, sounding disappointed.

Tap.  Tap.  Tap.

“Aren’t you going to put up a FIGHT?”

Tap tap tap tap tap.

They pull the knife out and get ready to stab you again.

Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap.

“Pathetic.”

Tap tap tap tap taptaptaptaptap _taptaptaptaptap-_

You feel something warm on your hand and look down to see your knife in Chara’s side.  The look of shock on their face gives way to a wide smile and they step backward.  You let go of the knife and fall to your knees, clutching your wound.  _Breathe._

Somewhere, Chara laughs.

“I knew you would do it.”  The voice sounds far away.  A clatter on the ground alerts you to the knife in front of you.  “Come on,” says the voice.  “Finish what you started.”

You look up, as well as you can.  Chara smiles down at you, blood oozing from their wound.

“Stand up,” they tell you.

* * *

_“Stand up,” they said.  “You can still take him.”_

_“It hurts,” you replied, “I don’t want to fight.  It hurts.”_

_“Do you want to die?”_

_“I...”_

_“If you want to live, you have to kill him!  Do you want to die?”_

_“Yes!”_

* * *

“No.”  You cough and spit.  Blood is everywhere.  “I can die just fine sitting down, thank you.”

“Were you always this defeatist?”

“Of course I was.  Haven’t you figured it out by now?”  You cough again.  “All that determination...”  You pause to laugh, which causes you to cough some more.  “It was never _mine._ ”

Chara kneels in front of you, grabs your arm to pull you upright, and places the knife in your hand.   “Fight me.”

“No.”

“I’ll kill you.”

“I don’t mind.”

“You’re pathetic.”

You laugh.  “I know.”

They grab your hand, knife wrapped in it, and press the tip to their chest.  “Kill me.”

You meet their eyes, seeing determination written in them.  “Suicide by proxy...” you mutter.  “That was your plan?”

Chara ducks their head.  Neither of you speak for a long time.

* * *

_“Why won’t you fight back?”_

_“I don’t want to hurt anyone.”_

_“It doesn’t matter what you want!  You’re dying!”_

* * *

“I want you to do something mean so I can hate you.”  Chara doesn’t look up, but you see their hair shaking as their head shivers.  For the first time, you hear emotion in their voice.  “You’re human, right?  So prove it.  Prove that you’re like the rest of us.”

“Human doesn’t mean evil,” you say as gently as you can.  “You’re not evil.”

Chara laughs - a quick, bitter laugh that immediately devolves into a quiet sob.  “Yes I am.”

“No you’re not.”

“You’re a bad liar.”

“Chara, look at me.”

They shift until you can just barely see their eyes, red around the edges, through their hair.

“Even if you did some bad things,” you say, “that doesn’t make you a bad person.”

They look back down suddenly, and tighten their grip on your hand.  “Don’t you dare.  You can’t just...  You can’t forgive me _despite_ who I am, Frisk.”

“That _isn’t_ who you are!”

Your knuckles ache under their tightening grip.  “All I’ve ever done is hurt people,” they say, their voice steady and low.  “I tried to make it better but I _can’t_.”  They grip your chest with their other hand, and you feel your soul glowing through the cloth of your shirt.  “And if it isn’t because of _what_ I am,”  They laugh again.  “it has to be because of _who_ I am.”

They push your knife toward their chest again.

“Please... prove me wrong.  Prove that you are human, and kill me.”

* * *

_Asriel recognized them, through you.  They told you to save him, and they gave you their memories so that you could.  They borrowed your voice and called out his name._

* * *

“You saved my life.”

Chara looks up at you, and you feel their fingernails in the skin of your hand.  “I didn’t...”

“I meant what I said.  It was _your_ determination that carried us through all that.  You were the one who saved Asriel.  You saved my life a thousand times over.  I don’t care what you did before.”

You lean down to bump your head gently against theirs.  “You should hate me,” they mutter, but they don’t pull away.

“Maybe I should,” you reply, “but I don’t.  And I’m never going to.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

“Of course not.”  You kiss the top of their head and they pull back slightly in surprise.  “You don’t have to be perfect,” you say, lowering the knife as their grip weakens.  “Just be _you_ , Chara.  That’s enough.”

Chara releases your hand and the knife falls uselessly on the ground.  “Fine,” they mutter.  “Whatever.  Just go.”

This time you’re the one who laughs.  “I think you misunderstood my purpose in being here.”  You stand up and hold out a hand to them.  “I’m not leaving without you.”

“You idiot.  Do you even know where you are?”

You raise an eyebrow, surprised, and glance around.  It sure _looks_ like the underground, but...

You notice that your stomach wound doesn’t hurt anymore.

“Not in the slightest,” you reply.  “That’s why I need your help getting out.”

Chara laughs - _actually l_ aughs this time, like they really think it’s funny.

Before you have the chance to speak again, they take your extended hand.


End file.
